ARC Raiders Is Introducing A Controversial Feature To Combat Cheaters

6 days ago 5

ARC Raiders is Addressing Cheaters by Making Things Worse for Everyone

Published May 19, 2026, 10:36 AM EDT

Jake Valentine is a Staff Writer at DualShockers with more than two decades of experience covering the video game industry. Since 2004, he has written about games across news, reviews, guides, lists, interviews, and event coverage, with experience covering major shows, preview events, breaking news, and one-on-one developer interviews.

Before joining DualShockers, Jake contributed to Outrun Gaming, GameRant, and The Game Fanatics. He has also worked in editorial, brand management, and operations roles, giving him a broad perspective on both games coverage and digital media. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronic Media and Broadcasting.

ARC Raiders remains one of the most popular games in the ever-growing extraction shooter genre. Sure, there are some new contenders in the market like Far Far West, but you can easily argue that ARC Raiders is still the head honcho in town.

With all that attention, naturally, comes people looking to get an edge in any way they can. Sadly, this usually means cheaters.

ARC Raiders Boss Explains New 'Aggression Matchmaking' System

Think twice before you shoot. ARC Raiders has skill-based, and aggression-based matchmaking systems.

Cheaters in ARC Raiders have actually been a problem for longer than most may realize. Embark Studios has been trying to combat them for a while now, including testing a kernel-level anti-chat to improve detection and precision in identifying cheaters.

Sadly, as anyone who plays a live service game knows, it always feels like the cheaters are one step ahead of the developers. It's a delicate game of whack-a-mole where you have to punish the cheaters while keeping the honest gamers out of the crossfire. They're not content with this technology, though, and are taking things up a notch at the risk of the entire playerbase.

ARC Raiders Is Adding Denuvo Anti-Cheat In A Future Update

As part of their upcoming 1.29.0 patch, Embark confirms they are adding Denuvo Anti-Cheat as early as today for a "limited player pool." After closely monitoring the situation, there are plans to expand it to a wider playerbase.

The word "Denuvo" is something of a boogeyman in the industry due to issues stemming from its DRM system, and many honest Linux players are nervous about what this means for them. "I'm a PVE player, no reason for cheats or anything. Denuvo has a bad reputation for creating a mess on performance and stability, so now I'm sweating on what might break when I wake up," said one nervous player on the Arc Raiders subreddit.

ARC Raiders' Most Popular Explosive Is Getting Nerfed

Embark continues to balance PvP combat in ARC Raiders, confirming multiple nerfs are on the way.

Embark reiterates that they're only using Denuvo for its anti-cheat features:

We will not be using Denuvo's Digital Rights Management (DRM) service, and are working to ensure minimal impact on performance.

They confirm that with the combination of Denuvo Anti-Cheat and Anybrain, "they're working to strengthen ARC Raiders' systems even further." Despite that reassurance, people are naturally nervous about whether or not this will break their game. Provided they aren't cheating, of course.